Wanted: £95k leader for mysterious pan-government IT service ‘of national importance’

Written by Sam Trendall on 23 August 2017 in News

News

Role within Department for International Development will entail creation and management of new service for use across more than 20 departments

The government is seeking a senior IT leader to “develop and run a new mission critical, secure IT-related service of national importance on behalf of multiple UK government departments”.

Details of what exactly the service will offer are thin on the ground, but the candidate information pack outlines that it will be used by more than 8,000 users spanning upwards of 20 different government departments. The head of service role, which will be housed within the Department for International Development in the department's role as "the cross-government public sector delivery
partner that has been tasked with establishing and running a secure global IT service on behalf of multiple government department".

The post comes with a salary of up to £95,000, and will be based in East Kilbride, albeit with frequent trips to London, and also requires top developed vetting level clearance for individual who have "long term, frequent and uncontrolled access to ‘Top Secret’ information".

The department said: “In the first instance, the head of service will be required to build, develop, and maintain the service and establish its good reputation amongst partners, building strong relationships with relevant government bodies and helping to build an enduring business model.

DfID added that the successful candidate will be tasked with establishing and overseeing three main areas of the nascent service: core technology and development; service operations; and cybersecurity and assurance. The head of service will also be responsible be expected to “manage the transition from [the service’s] current programme status to a fully fledged, highly regarded service”.

The closing date for applications is 10am on Monday 11 September. After which will be a number of further stages, beginning with external interview, followed by shortlist creation, then assessments, psychometric testing and feedback, ‘fireside chats’, and, finally, panel interviews during the last few days of October.

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